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Project properties |
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| Title | Comparison of grazed and ungrazed islet vegetation on Cura�ao |
| Group | Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Drs. John de Freitas (Carmabi, Curacao) & Dr. A.O. Debrot (Imares, Netherlands) |
| Examiner(s) | David Kleijn |
| Contact info | j.defreitas@carmabi.org. Tel: 5999-4627616. |
| Begin date | 2016/11/01 |
| End date | 2020/12/31 |
| Description | Human disturbance including grazing by introduced mammals has caused major changes in the vegetation of islands. This comes back in all researches that has been done on the effects of exotic grazers on the vegetation of islands. This is also the case for the Dutch Caribbean islands. Debrot & de Freitas compared the vegetation of grazed and ungrazed rock vegetation and showed that major changes in the vegetation were the results of grazing by exotic mammalian grazers. E.g. on ungrazed rocks bromeliads and orchids were growing on the ground and also had dominance by perennial species. On grazed rocks the vegetation was characterized by pioneer, common and annual species.
Carmabi collected data along transects on vegetation on islets in Curacao on which exotic mammalian grazers has never been able to graze. Vegetation data in neighboring habitats to which the exotic grazers had access were also collected immediately after or before the data collection on the islets took place. The purpose of the present project is to analyze the data statistically and present a report that will be used to write a publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Co-operation: Carmabi will provide lodging and office space at a reduced rate for the period of the project. |
| Used skills | Type of work: office work with limited fieldwork
Requirements: able to work with statistics. Affinity with terrestrial ecology. Drivers license. Skills: accuracy in dealing with data. |
| Requirements | |